The emerging use of social media for health-related purposes in low and middle-income countries: A scoping review

Abstract

Social media has the ability to facilitate disease surveillance, mass communication, health education, knowledge translation, and collaboration amongst health providers in low- and middle-income countries. Misinformation or poorly communicated information can contribute to negative health behaviours and adverse health outcomes amongst consumers, as well as hysteria and chaos. Organizations using social media should provide accurate and readable information. Promotion of credible social media sites by governments, health care professionals and researchers, as well as education on the appropriate use of social media, could help to lessen the effect of misinformation. This is a nascent body of literature and future research should investigate the relative effectiveness of various platforms for different users, other potential uses, and pursue a broader geographical focus.

Using Google Trends to Examine the Spatio-Temporal Incidence and Behavioral Patterns of Dengue Disease: A Case Study in Metropolitan Manila, Philippines

“…Internet access and use have increased globally, including the Philippines. The internet, together with social media, has become capable of facilitating disease surveillance, mass communication, health education, and knowledge translation and collaboration amongst health providers [20]. Google Trends is an accessible internet platform that provides geospatial and temporal patterns of search volumes for user-specified terms towards public health surveillance.…”

“…Another potential advantage of Google Trends is the understanding of health-seeking behaviors of the targeted population toward specific diseases [20]. It can present significant insights into the population behavior and health-related phenomena of diseases [32].…”

Pulling Together to Beat Superbugs Knowledge and Implementation Gaps in Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance

“…If public and veterinary health authorities and governments fail to deliver the correct AMR message, then user-generated social media could amplify and perpetuate misconceptions. Nevertheless, a study published in July 2018 described how social media for health-related purposes are expanding in LMIC settings and have potential as a tool to address AMR (Hagg et al 2018).…”

Social Media in Healthcare

“…Hospitals can communicate and educate their patients using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. SM can facilitate disease surveillance, mass communication, health education, knowledge translation, and collaboration among healthcare providers [9]. The use of SM allows doctors in the same area to be constant touch with each other.…”